2009 Confederations Cup FAQ

26 Days to Go: 2009 Confederations Cup FAQ

We're 26 days from the start of FIFA's 2010 World Cup dry run in South Africa, the 2009 Confederations Cup.

Like many of you, I have no idea what the Confederations Cup is.

Let's spend the next 26 days previewing the Cup, answering questions and becoming Confederations Cup experts!

First, we'll answer the pressing question of the day: What is the Confederations Cup?
Then we'll preview the teams, the groups, the stadiums and follow the action until a champion is crowned June 28th!

Let's get to it!

The easiest way of starting this is by answering the most important questions.
I'll use a simple Q and A format for this first post.

Q: So, what's the Confederations Cup?

A: The FIFA Confederations Cup is a national team football tournament, held every four years by FIFA. It is contested by the winners of each of the six FIFA confederation championships (Africa, Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Oceania) plus the previous World Cup winner and the host country, bringing the total to eight.

According to the South African Times, 'The eight team championship is now regarded as second only in prestige to the World Cup finals and is hosted 12 months before the World Cup finals in order for Fifa and the Local Organising Committee to test the readiness of their stadiums and infrastructures ahead of the world showpiece. Most coaches and countries regard the 2009 Confederations Cup as a dress rehearsal for the 2010 showpiece.'

Q: When is the Cup?

A: It starts in 26 days, June 14th. It lasts until June 28th. Two weeks.

Q: Who is in the Cup?

A: The eight teams this year are ...

1. South Africa - Host nation
2. Italy - 2006 World Cup champions
3. USA - North American champions
4. Brazil - South American champions
5. Iraq - Asian champions
6. Egypt - African champions
7. Spain - European champions
8. New Zealand - Oceania champions

Q: Where will the matches be held?

A: Four cities will host matches.

1. Johannesburg (Coca Cola Park)
2. Pretoria (Loftus Versfeld Stadium)
3. Bloemfontein (Free State Stadium)
4. Rustenburg (Royal Bafokeng Stadium)

Q: What are the matches, group stages, etc.?

A: The eight teams are divided into two groups, A and B. A random draw was held and teams from the same confederation were not drawn into the same group
Here's how it breaks down ...



Group A
South Africa
Iraq
New Zealand
Spain

Group B
USA
Italy
Brazil
Egypt

The most anticipated first round matchup takes place on June 21st when Brazil takes on defending world champions Italy.

Brazil are defending Confederations Cup champions. The 5-time world champions beat Argentina in the final in Germany in 2005.

Q: What's the schedule?

A: Please click here for a match schedule.

Q: Where's the final held?

A: The top two teams in each group advance to the knock out stages.
Group winners will face the other group's runner-up in the semifinals.
The final will be held June 28th in Johannesburg's Coca Cola Park.

Q: Any history?

A: I've no clue. But how about we scour the 'net for some answers?

According to Wikipedia, the tournament has its origins in the King Fahd Cup, held in Saudi Arabia in 1992 and 1995 and contested by the Saudi Arabian national side and a few continental champions.

FIFA took over the running of the competition in 1997, renaming it the FIFA Confederations Cup and staging the tournament every two years up until 2005.

In 2005, FIFA decided to hold the tournament every four years - one year before the World Cup, in the World Cup host country - making it more or less an official dress rehearsal for the World Cup.

Previous Confederations Cup tournaments:

• 1997: Saudi Arabia (winner Brazil)
• 1999: Mexico (winner Mexico)
• 2001: South Korea/Japan (winner France)
• 2003: France (winner France)
• 2005: Germany (winner Brazil)

Football's Impact on Iraq

This is an article by Steven Wells printed in today's Guardian, the wonderful newspaper from England which in my opinion also boasts one of the best football websites around.

It's about football being used as a weapon in the war on terror. As the byline says, The battle for hearts and minds has taken on a sporting dimension, but the US army has found soccer is more than just a load of balls.

It's not the nicest piece in the world, but it states the fact of the matter: football is being used as propaganda in the war on terror. But it's not really working.

Have a read and see how impactful football can be in people's daily lives, war or otherwise.

Iraqis love soccer. Just how much they love soccer stunned some US troops. "Forget bowl season, the World Series, March Madness, and the Super Bowl, they don't care," wrote Michael, a pro-war soldier blogger in 2005. "They have more passion for the game of soccer than we ever thought of having for [American] football or baseball... In every mission I've been on, I've never once failed to witness a game of soccer."

Then Mike had a great idea. The US military should hand out soccer balls. Thousands of soccer balls. Soccer balls with names of US corporations or the faces of wanted terrorists on them. "Imagine thousands of Iraqi kids kicking around a ball with [Abu Musab al] Zarqawi's likeness on it. That would be a beautiful sight."

But Mike - a self-described "big dreamer" - didn't stop there. If soccer balls could win ordinary Iraqis over to freedom and democracy, then why not to Title IX style sports feminism as well?

"We could start an Iraqi women's soccer movement. Why not? I want to be able to give a soccer ball to that shy little girl standing behind the boys, watching her angelic face become a bright shining light as I reach over the boy's heads to place a ball into her hands. Of course there will be so many balls that the boys standing in front of her will have already received one. Maybe one day they can field an Iraqi women's Olympic soccer team. They could make their entrance onto the world stage at the 2012 Summer Olympics in New York City."

We need now to skip quickly over the inconvenient fact that women's soccer actually flourished under Saddam Hussein (and that the 2012 Games were awarded to London). And that women's games were shown regularly on Iraqi TV. "No one thinks that sports are just for men", Nadia Yasser, the captain of the Iraqi women's soccer team, told the New York Times in 2002 a year before the invasion and occupation.

Anyway, blogger Mike then googled "operation soccer ball" and - well blow me down - was amazed to discover that (kinda like at the end of the song Tie A Yellow Ribbon) hundreds of his fellow grunts had already had exactly the same idea.

After all, if the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, could not the War in Iraq be saved on the soccer fields of Baghdad? Give them balls - the theory ran - and their hearts and minds will follow.

As a result there are now probably more US-donated soccer balls in Iraq than there are depleted uranium shells - and that's a hell of a lot. The Pentagon was quick to jump on the soccer bandwagon. There are countless Department of Defense press releases and armed-forces newspaper articles, all written in a relentlessly upbeat Catch 22-speak in which victory is always and endlessly just one free soccer ball away.

On YouTube you can watch: troops with mad skills banging balls about with Iraqi urchins. Troops slinging balls out of choppers, and handing out balls to thrilled children. You can also read about troops handing over out-of-date Ipswich Town shirts to obviously delighted villagers.

Soccer even seems to have been integrated into the basic training of some units. "Our marines have to be able to be aggressive and hostile one moment and the next moment be able to play soccer with the kids on the street," said Lt. Gen James Conway, commander of the US Marines' First Expeditionary Force in 2006. Curiously those war-supporting neo-con wingnuts who'd previously bashed soccer as foreign, un-American and socialist, noticeably failed to condemn this soccerfication on the US war effort. Still, it must rankle with the die-hards.

The Greeks and Romans left us with athletics, boxing, wrestling and the Olympics. The British Empire gave the world cricket, basketball, baseball, golf, tennis, competitive skiing and all the footballs. But the new American empire - despite dominating world culture in so many other ways - looks likely to leave as its sporting legacy the square root of bugger-all.

The US attempts to use soccer have met with mixed results. And it's not just the fact that every single time an Iraqi soccer player sees a microphone, they use it to condemn the US occupation, including the captain Younis Mahmoud.

A blogger for wired.com recently witnessed a ball giveaway that turned sourin Fallujah.

In Afghanistan donated balls caused outrage when it was discovered they were emblazoned with a quote from the Qur'an contained in the Saudi flag.

And in an article published on salon.com in February, a veteran described how a 2004 attempt to hand out balls went awry when it was discovered that all the balls were deflated. The troops were ordered to hand the balls out anyway, the officer in charge reasoning that recipients should be damn grateful to be getting any balls at all. Unfortunately, the Iraqis were not terribly impressed with the gesture. "They were like, 'What are you doing? What are we supposed to do with this?'" says Garett Reppenhagen. "Kids were wearing these soccer balls as hats. They were kicking them around. They were in trees. They were floating in canals. They were everywhere. There were so many soccer balls."

"Wow" wrote one reader. "Talk about a sorry metaphor for the whole stupid war."

Baghdad Welcomes Weeping Soccer Stars

Weeping tears of joy and pride, Iraq's soccer champions arrived home on Friday to celebrate the Asian Cup victory that inspired their nation, but heavy security meant few Baghdadis were able to join the party.

"There is no happier moment," goalkeeper Noor Sabri told Iraq state television, choking back tears as other players behind him sobbed.

"I don't know what to say. All I can say is congratulations to the mothers of the martyrs," he said, paying tribute to victims of his country's conflict.

Player Ali Rahima said: "We hope that this unity will not be only for football. We hope everybody will unite to bring happiness to the Iraqi people."

After nightfall the team was driven to the heavily fortified "green zone" government and diplomatic compound, where Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki kissed each player on both cheeks and placed rings of flowers around their necks.

They were greeted inside the walled compound by a marching band and a throng of government officials, before being ushered in to the ceremony with Maliki and President Jalal Talabani.

"You have brought the smile back to the lips of Iraq," Maliki said. "You are an example of our unity."

Officials chanted and clapped, and a poet in robes took a microphone to shout verses in the team's honor.

The players passed the trophy they had won to a woman whose son was killed by a suicide bomber while celebrating the team's semi-final victory last week. She passed the trophy on to the prime minister and the president.

Earlier, hundreds of Iraqis had managed to negotiate a series of security checkpoints in blistering summer heat to reach the airport, hoping for a glimpse of their heroes.

"People have been dancing and chanting and singing all day. We haven't gotten tired," a government employee who was at the airport said shortly before the team arrived.

But most of the city remained locked down in a weekly curfew for the Muslim day of prayer. The majority of Iraqis would see the players only on television.
Some of the players -- including captain Younis Mahmoud who scored the goal that clinched the championship -- stayed away, citing other commitments or the danger of coming home.

"It's a shame that this team brought us the happiness of our lives, and we still cannot celebrate them properly," said Baghdad resident Ammar Hussein, 33. He said he did not dare take to the streets for safety reasons.

The team, nicknamed the Lions of Mesopotamia, triggered nationwide euphoria with their against-the-odds victory last Sunday. After the final whistle in their 1-0 defeat of heavily favoured Saudi Arabia, at least seven people were killed by stray bullets as joyous Iraqis fired rifles into the air.

Iraqis have hailed the team -- a snapshot of the country's religious sects and ethnic groups -- as proof Iraq could overcome the divisions that have led to bloodshed.

Newspapers and TV commentators contrasted the players with the country's feuding and ineffective politicians.

(Thanks to Mussab Al-Khairalla of Reuters for this report.)

Best African Players & A Comment About Censorship

A few days ago I posted about the greatest African player ever. A post like this gets noticed and many people commented with their opinion.

I also managed to get readers from the Big Soccer forum and Xtratime.com community.

Here, I share some of the best comments.

Reader Chxta said: 'As with most things African, this is a topic that would be quite controversial, for example a lot of the titles won by Egyptian clubs have always been hotly debated.

For me it is a straight fight between Milla, Hassan and Kanu.

Milla shone on the world stage, but never got to the pinnacle of club football.

Kanu has shone on the world stage, but arguably in youth competitions (Olympics for example), however truth be told is that he is, the most decorated player in the English Premiership at the moment, and the most decorated African player ever. However, he hasn't even scored a Nations Cup goal much less win the tournament.

I'd probably give it to Hassan on the strength of the impact he had on his country's game.'

BigSoccer poster Cazlon said: 'Unfortunately there is little point in a ranking like this.

Who outside of their respective country still knows about Abdul Razak, Thomas N'Kono, or even the legendary Kalusha Bwalya ?

European/American tabloids don't, certainly not if you limit the selection to the last decade.

Fair enough.

Xtratime reader Andy Christ said: 'It's between Weah and Eto'o and the Cameroonian will probably edge it after another 3-4 good seasons. Drogba might also come close to Weah's legend if he stays in the form he showed last season. Kanu and Okocha have never been world class and Milla never did enough in Europe. Hassan is somebody who is an unknown factor outside Africa but I doubt if that many Africans outside Egypt seriously rate him above Weah or Eto'o.

He may be right. Only time can tell.

The issue isn't settled and only time will tell who really is the greatest African player ever. Kanu? Milla? Eto'o in a few years? Or someone unknown to the masses, as Cazlon pointed out? Let the debate continue.
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A few days ago, we posted a story about censorship and FIFA's attempts to discourage use of their brand. We noted the case of Anton Vosloo, who ran the wildly successful www.2010-soccer-worldcup.com. FIFA ordered it shut and the site was closed within days.

This comment comes in from Anton Vosloo himself: 'They said the actual domain name was the problem and not so much the content. There are already much more than 7 sites out there.I think it was more the group of us that had a high page rank on google. My site was a free directory for travel related sites in Southern Afica.


I think it's sad that FIFA has come to this, but maybe they're right? Maybe they do need to protect their assets? What do you think?

Read the article and the posted link in the article to learn more about this story.
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Kudos to the Iraqi soccer team on their Asian Cup victory. Once again, football uplifts and transforms a nation. The power of a ball. It's incredible ...

Turmoil in Iraq

Let's hope nothing like this happens in Africa during the 2010 Finals.

A day of joy and jubilation was marred by violence, as extremists used the Iraqi's march to the Asian Cup Finals to propagate their agenda.

This report comes to us from the Associated Press. The pictures are courtesy of the New York Times.

'BAGHDAD (AP) -- Two suicide car bombings struck soccer fans in Baghdad as they were celebrating Iraq's victory in the Asian Cup semifinal on Wednesday, killing at least 50 people and wounding more than 100, officials said.

The victims were among the thousands of revelers who took to the streets of the capital after the country's national soccer team beat South Korea to reach the tournament's final against Saudi Arabia on Sunday in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The first attack took place about 6:30 p.m. when a bomber exploded in a crowd of people cheering near a well-known ice cream parlor in Baghdad's western neighborhood of Mansour, according to police and hospital officials. At least 30 people were killed and 75 were wounded, an Interior Ministry official said.

Another suicide car bomber detonated his payload about 45 minutes later in the midst of dozens of vehicles filled with revelers near an Iraqi army checkpoint in the eastern district of Ghadeer, killing at least 20 people, including two soldiers, and wounding 61, according to the ministry official.

All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information.

The second attack occurred as Iraqis of all ages were packed on top of cars, pickups and minibuses, waving Iraqi flags and shirts, while others danced in the streets near the checkpoint. Men put towels over their heads or sprayed cars with water for relief in the hot summer weather.

Thousands of fans also gathered in the central district of Karradah to celebrate, dancing, beating drums and chanting ''Iraq, Iraq.'' Elsewhere in city, traffic snarled as cars, Iraqi flags flying from their windows, moved slowly amid hundreds of fans. Motorists honked their horns.

The successful run in the Asian Cup has been a cause of much joy in this wartorn country, with Iraqis saying the mixed makeup of the team showed the country's rival ethnic and religious factions can unite despite years of sectarian violence.

Preliminary police reports said one person was also killed and 17 wounded by celebratory gunfire.

More than an hour after Iraqi goalkeeper Noor Sabri made the crucial save to win the match, gunfire could still be heard in many parts of the capital.

State television broadcast a warning from the Iraqi military urging residents not to engage in celebratory gunfire. But the warning appeared to have been ignored.

Five people were killed in the celebratory gunfire that followed Iraq's win over Vietnam in a quarterfinal match played in Bangkok, Thailand, on Sunday. But no other violence was reported in those celebrations.

Iraq and South Korea played to a scoreless draw through 90 minutes of regulation time and 30 minutes of extra time in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. But Iraq won a penalty shootout 4-3 to advance to Sunday's final in Jakarta.'

Iraq in Asian Cup Final Update

It's Iraq-Saudi Arabia after the Saudi's 3-2 victory over two-time defending champions Japan.

The tournament final will be played on Sunday in Jakarta. It will be Iraq’s first-ever trip to the Asian Cup championship game. The Saudis won it in 1984, 1988 and 1996.

According to the Associated Press, 'Heavy celebratory gunfire rang out across the Iraqi capital and thousands of fans gathered in the central Baghdad district of Karradah to celebrate by dancing, beating drums and chanting ‘Iraq, Iraq.’ Elsewhere in the city, traffic snarled as drivers honked their horns — Iraqi flags flying from their windows — amid hundreds of fans.'

After the final penalty kick was taken, AFP reported, 'Iraqi players rushed to their supporters to grab national flags as other players wept with joy when the realisation hit that they had won.'

Iraq coach Jorvan Vieira said: “This victory is for the people of Iraq because they deserve it. It also also for the boys because they worked very, very hard. … Korea are a good team and I thought we neutralised them well. We were better than Korea on the fitness side. Is is a game that we will never forget.”

Unfortunately, according to Reuters, 'A car bomb exploded near a group of soccer fans celebrating Iraq's Asian Cup victory over South Korea on Wednesday, killing 10 people and wounding 20, police in Baghdad said.

Police said the blast took place in the capital's western Mansour district. One police source said the bomb was placed in a parked car.
A second source said the blast was caused by a suicide bomber.'

Iraq in Asian Cup Final

An update on the Iraqi national team playing in the Asian Cup.

Jubilation for Iraq today as they advanced to the Asian Cup Final virtue of their penalty-shootout victory over South Korea, 0-0 and 4-3 on penalties.

Congratulations to the Iraqis on their spectacular run to the Final. They'll play the winner of the Saudi Arabia-Japan game, which is being played now.

For more on the game, read the Guardian Unlimited's report here.

According to the New York Times, 'In South Korea, the defeat will be overshadowed by news of the killing in Afghanistan of a South Korean held hostage by Taliban extremists. In Iraq, recent victories of the national team have been met with spontaneous street celebrations, although a penalty-kick victory in the quarterfinal over Vietnam was marred by the deaths in Baghdad of at least two Iraqis by stray gunfire, after celebrants fired weapons into the air.'